DV Victims in the Workplace

Employer Alliance sets Nov. 9 for 2017 workplace/DV conference

The Memphis Employer Alliance against Domestic Violence will present the 2017 conference on domestic violence in the workplace on Nov. 9.

The alliance joins the Memphis Area Women’s Council in organizing the 2017 “Violence at Home. Victims at Work.” conference to be hosted by Baptist Memorial Health Care in the Baptist Memphis Education and Conference Center, Dr. H. Edward Garrett, Sr. Auditorium located at 6027 Walnut Grove Rd., Memphis, Tennessee 38120. Parking is in the adjacent garage.

In this expanded version of the Council’s two-hour workshops, employers will learn to “recognize, respond and refer” when employees and colleagues experience intimate partner violence. Expert panels will cover risk and liabilities; security, workplace policies and employers’ responses, and local resources including third-party orders of protection.

The conference will equip employers to develop policies and share resources to reduce risk and protect the workplace.

Local crime data show that DV homicides have been between 12% and 17% of all homicides in Memphis the past two years. Nurses, teachers and retail workers seem to be especially at risk.

Conference content should be applicable for human resource professionals’ certification credits. Faith groups and non-profits attending will get a certificate of completion from the Memphis Employers Alliance against Domestic Violence and Baptist Memorial Health Care.

Alliance membership is open in all categories and donor levels. Founding members donate a minimum of $2,000 and in return receive full credit in publicity, printed materials and during public events. Those employers also will receive 20 seats at the 2017 conference; a workshop at their workplace; first notice to future public workshops; a quarterly newsletter on DV and workplace issues; and two representatives to quarterly Alliance sessions.

Employers who donate $1,000 will receive 10 seats at the 2016 conference as well as listing in all publicity and materials; first notice to future public workshops; a quarterly newsletter on DV and workplace issues; and a representative to quarterly Alliance sessions.

Employers who donate $500 will receive up to 5 seats at the 2016 conference and be listed in the conference agenda; first notice to future workshops; a quarterly newsletter on DV and workplace issues; and a representative to quarterly Alliance sessions.

All who donate at least $150 will be listed in the conference agenda and receive the quarterly newsletter.

Future two-hour VHVW workshops will receive certificates of completion from the Alliance.

For more information on the alliance or the conference, contact Deborah Clubb, dclubb@memphiswomen.org or 901-378-3866.

Employers can prepare for workplace domestic violence

— Published originally in The Commercial Appeal, October, 2016

Memphians were reminded again recently what can happen when domestic violence comes to the workplace.

As employees gathered at Metro Materials, a concrete manufacturer in Whitehaven, Willard Green was shot by his wife in the company office. She had applied for an order of protection due to domestic violence and the couple, both employed at Metro, were due for a hearing on her request on Oct. 10.

Green died at Regional One. His wife was not charged. The shooting was ruled justifiable. The incident shows again how lethal abusive intimate relationships can be and how domestic violence can find its way to the work place.

Our community in fact has seen repeated episodes of women murdered at work by a current or former husband or boyfriend. This has happened in recent memory at a day care center, a hospital, a grocery store, a department store and an office complex – often in the parking lots.
Local crime data show that domestic violence homicides have accounted for between 12 and 17 percent of all homicides in Memphis the past two years. A close look at the numbers shows that many women murdered by their intimate partners are employees at local businesses. Nurses, teachers and retail workers seem to be especially at risk.

Since these relationships escalate over time, typically from verbal and emotional abuse to repeated physical and even sexual violence, it follows that victims’ employers can become aware of their distress and connect them to community resources.

We do not know what managers at Metro Materials had tried, but we know that the most dangerous time in an abusive, battering relationship is when the victim takes steps to leave or otherwise take control, as Green’s wife had done in seeking an Order of Protection. And employers don’t have to wait to react when a tragic situation unfolds in their parking lot, loading dock or front office. Employers can be prepared, informed and active as partners in addressing the epidemic of intimate partner violence.

Company managers can learn to recognize when colleagues or employees are struggling with partner violence. They can know how to respond while preserving security and employee rights and reducing risks and liabilities.